Posts Filed Under research
Where's the Phone?
In 2004, I participated in a series of studies to understand where people carry mobile phones. Fumiko Ichikawa presented the first public results of this research in a paper entitled Where’s the Phone – a Study of Mobile Phone Location in Public Spaces (pdf – 343KB) at the Mobility 2005 conference in Guangzhou, China. This paper draws on data from the first 3 studies – Helsinki, Milan and New York.
I recommend you read Jan Chipchase detailed blog post about this and the follow up studies in Korea, China, Japan, etc.
Been there, done what?
Looking at this map, I realised a few things:
a) I have only discovered one place in 2005, although I have traveled to fifteen different cities in nine different countries. Appalling.
b) This map is not visualising accurately my travels. In reality, I am traveling from nod to nod (cities to cities or even districts to districts), and not country-to-country. It is a fine difference but I have always had a hard time to telling I have been to Russia when I’ve only been to St Petersburg and Novgorod. What do you actually learn, experience, and understand when you have such a limited exposure to a city, country, and culture? e.g. tour bus trip and tour bus ethnography.
c) I visit over and over the same cities, and I’m drawn back to the places I have lived no matter what I do.
Conclusion, these three behaviours are a pattern that appears consistently in the things I currently do and/or use.